Lack of sanitation facilities is a common occurrence in informal settlements that are common in most developing countries. One challenge with sanitation provision in these settlements is the cost and financing of sanitation.

This study aimed at estimating the cost of sanitation, and investigating the social and economic dynamics within Kisumu’s informal settlements that hinder provision and uptake of sanitation facilities. Primary data was collected from residents of the settlements, and using logistic and hedonic regression analysis, we identify characteristics of residents with sanitation facilities, and estimate the cost of sanitation as revealed in rental prices.

Our study finds that sanitation constitutes approximately 54% of the rent paid in the settlements; and dynamics such as landlords and tenants preferences, and sharing of sanitation facilities influence provision and payment for sanitation. This study contributes to general development by estimating the cost of sanitation, and further identifies barriers and opportunities for improvement including the interplay between landlords and tenants.

Provision of sanitation in informal settlements is intertwined in social and economic dynamics, and development approaches should target both landlords and tenants, while also engaging various stakeholders to work together to identify affordable and appropriate sanitation technologies

What do we want to know?
This systematic review examines the evidence on the effectiveness of different urban-planning approaches in providing access to water, sanitation and electricity services in low-income or informal settlements in Low- and Middle-Income Countries (LMICs). The study was funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) of the UK government and conducted by the Indian Institute of Technology Madras.

What did we find?
This review found that top-down efforts are ineffective for connecting populations to centralised water, sanitation or electricity services. Bottom up, participatory approaches are effective for local sanitation solutions, but not for water supply or connectivity to other services.

Services provided by public or private agencies through centralised planning and implementation (top-down) appeared effective in individual studies for connecting populations to water, sanitation and electricity. However, where studies were sufficiently similar to justify pooling findings in a statistical meta-analysis, this conclusion was not confirmed. Qualitative synthesis of contextual factors suggest a need for the customisation of solutions to meet local needs, and better delivery of services by alternative/non-government service providers.

Participatory (bottom-up) approaches adopted by NGOs and CBOs suit the construction and maintenance of toilets, which can be standalone, and statistical meta-analysis confirms their effectiveness for individual but not community toilets. Although studies of bottom-up approaches to improving water access appeared positive more often than studies of top down approaches, this difference was not statistically significant in a meta-analysis. Moreover, bottom-up approaches suffer from problems of scaling-up. Replication of successful models may not always be possible, since the same conditions may not be present in different locations.

Neighbourhoods without security of tenure are rarely served well top-down. Bottom-up approaches are also limited in this context, and also in Africa where efforts may be hampered by particularly modest levels of economic development. Public-private partnerships show promise for top-down approaches to improving water supply. Bottom-up, NGO led initiatives for improving water supply need the cooperation and support of the public sector.

Donor-funded water and sanitation improvement programmes tend to focus on and operate within the formal frameworks put in place by municipal or national governments. These frameworks broadly comprise the rules, laws and official policies that govern water and sanitation services delivery. However, in order to plan and implement programmes effectively, it is essential that implementers also recognise and take into account the influence of more subtle informal factors, such as conventions, norms of behaviour, and unwritten cultural codes of conduct.

This Topic Brief draws on WSUP’s experience in the 6-city African Cities for the Future (ACF) programme, to illustrate how both formal and informal factors can influence local service provider and low-income consumer behaviours. The Topic Brief also provides practical guidance aimed at sector programme managers to help explore and respond to some of the issues raised here, with a view to achieving greater project sustainability.

Alternative sanitation specialists Enviro Options has been awarded a two-year tender by the City of Cape Town to provide informal settlements with a dry sanitation system. This system does not use water or electricity, is odourless and is designed with the user’s health, as well as respectability, in mind, says Enviro Options MD Mark la Trobe.

The Enviro Loo

Enviro Options has installed the first series of Enviro Loo dry sanitation units for the City of Cape Town. The unit is designed to separate solid and liquid waste as it enters the system. The separate waste is exposed to continuous airflows that dry it. Air is drawn in through the toilet bowl and inlet pipes and out at the top of the vent pipe. The system uses wind and heat to maintain airflows only into the bottom and out the top of the system, making it odourless. It does not use water so waste volumes are kept to manageable levels. When the waste is removed, it is about 5% of its original volume.

Water-borne sanitation is commonly installed in municipalities that have existing sewerage systems. Rural and periurban municipalities that do not have existing sewerage systems are the principal markets for the stand-alone system. The Department of Education and Limpopo province’s Department of Health use the Enviro Loo system in their rural schools and clinics respectively, and are the biggest clients of the company. Currently, the dry loos are being installed in schools in Limpopo, he says.

The recession and the loss of orders to Dubai have meant that sales of Enviro Loos have decreased during the past year. However, the company received an increased number of contracts to operate and maintain the units during the same time. The City of Cape Town’s tender included a maintenance contract for the system with Enviro Options.

The company usually creates a small business within the community to operate and maintain the system. This creates employment and keeps the system operating and maintained. Users and owners of the system are educated in its use and the people employed by the small company to maintain the systems supplement this through regular interaction with users and owners.

“Where we established formal maintenance crews, we find that users are very positive about the product because it operates continually and is not another failure,” La Trobe says.

Enviro Options communications manager Wendy Mdaki says that maintenance of the system is critical. She says that municipalities must follow up on infrastructure projects that they have completed to ensure that main- tenance is done on existing infra- structure. Maintaining the infrastructure creates jobs but also keeps the infrastructure effective.

La Trobe agrees and adds that, if maintenance is not done, the public sees the failure of the system as a problem with the product and not as result of lack of maintenance.

The Enviro Loo system cannot use chemical detergents and the company provides an organic detergent with which to clean the system. Biodegradable substances can safely be used in the toilet.

Enviro Options received the Intel Environment Award in 2005 from the Tech Museum, in the US, for its waterless dehydration/evaporation Enviro Loo. Fifty thousand units are in use throughout the world and the company recently exported a number of systems to France and one to the US in March 2010.

Interest in the system has increased since the award was received. La Trobe says that Enviro Options is part of the drive to halve the number of people without access to sanitation by 2015. The company plans to expand its sales into provinces where its products have not been installed before. There are new inquiries from the Middle East region with the easing of the global recession.

This paper assesses the quality and extent of provision for water and sanitation in urban areas in Malawi – where over 60% of the population lives in informal settlements. It also considers whether the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for water and sanitation are likely to be met in Malawi, and examines the current and potential role of community-led sanitation improvements. It includes recommendations for interventions needed by governmental, international and civil-society organizations to improve living conditions of communities to contribute to the realization of the MDGs.

Here the Water and Sanitation Program (WSP) introduces the work achieved by the Nairobi City Water and Sewerage Company (NCWSC) and the Athi Water Services Board (AWSB) and their guidelines for water supply and sanitation interventions in informal settlements.

The document starts with an overview of the situation of Nairobi and its informal settlements. Then, technical options for water supply, sanitation, drainage as well as the development of technical capacity and appropriate standards are suggested, along with financial and management options. Finally guiding principles are presented. These include for instance: social, economic and financial principles, institutional and management arrangements, and working with stakeholders.

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